


Disciples of War and Magic

by sylphiawings



Series: The Life and Times of Aera Sylvarant [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26306167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylphiawings/pseuds/sylphiawings
Summary: Aera's parents decide that her first job class should be her own decision. (Maybe.)
Series: The Life and Times of Aera Sylvarant [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906948
Kudos: 3
Collections: #FFxivWrite2020 Final Fantasy 30 Day Writing Challenge





	Disciples of War and Magic

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small drabble for the 30-day #FFxivWrite2020 challenge on Tumblr by [Moen Moen](https://sea-wolf-coast-to-coast.tumblr.com/)! This story is based on the fourth prompt, [Day 4: Clinch.](https://sea-wolf-coast-to-coast.tumblr.com/post/628355051800444928/prompt-4-clinch)

A small, young, ten-year-old Aera Sylvarant stared at the cards laid out in front of her.

Her father, Lorcan Sylvarant, sat cross-legged in front of her, face scrunched at his only daughter.

"You just have to choose one, Aera," Lorcan urged her on, eagerly gesturing towards the cards in-between them. For a Sharlayan scholar, Lorcan was an eccentric man - he tended to do unconventional ways of doing things. For example, if there was a new sample of flora or fauna that he's discovered, the first thing he would do is taste a small part of the sample before doing anything else, and then labeling that sample with an appropriate tag. (That being said, his 'labels' include tags such as "corny", "despondent", or "troll bog", which wasn't helpful to his colleagues at all.) This time, since Aera was nearing the age where she would choose her first job class to study, he decided to doodle the corresponding job stone symbols onto cards and have Aera choose based on which one she preferred.

Not the best way to decide your possible lifelong class career, especially for a ten-year-old, but it certainly was... different.

"I just choose whichever?" Aera asked innocently, not quite understanding the symbols on the cards.

"Of course!" Lorcan beamed at her. "Now go," he urged.

"Lorcan," Aisha Sylvarant, his wife, raised an eyebrow at him as she stood behind her husband, leaning down to observe the scene. "Is this truly the best way--?"

"I'm confident," Lorcan grinned, which did not fill his wife with that selfsame confidence. She simply gave him her usual doubtful expression and looked at her daughter, apprehensive.

Aera, for her part, was still staring holes into the cards her father laid out in front of her. She reached out for one of the blue ones, for the tank job classes, but she hesitated. She peeked up to see her father's eyes brimming with expectation. She didn't quite understand what each card's drawing was, but she did know that whichever card she chose, she would have to study through that. At least that much, she knew.

It didn't really matter to her what job class she would be studying, since she loved studying regardless, but clearly this was important to her father. Aera hovered her hand over the red-colored cards, and Lorcan's shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Aera then moved her hand towards the green cards, and her father leaned forward, excited. Her mother nearly snorted, knowing what her daughter was doing - she was gauging her father's reactions. Lorcan wasn't a very subtle man. If even a ten-year-old knew that, then certainly, Aisha, who has known and married him for over a decade now, knew better.

Lorcan was an accomplished Scholar, and Aisha was a terrifying Black Mage, so magic ran deep in the family. It was obvious that Lorcan wanted Aera to follow in his footsteps, but he's still giving her the choice.

(A choice that she doesn't quite understand the full context of, but a choice nonetheless.)

Aera's hand continued hovering over the green cards. Lorcan, at this point, had stars in his eyes. Aisha slapped him in the forehead. "Stop pressuring her," she chided, pushing him back to give Aera space.

There were three green cards, one for each Healer job class prevalent in Sharlayan - Scholar, Astrologian, and White Mage. Aera started to hover her hand above the three, still peeking at her father. Though her mother just warned him, her father's giddiness was hard to hide.

Aera's hand slowly reached forward towards the Scholar symbol.

"YES!" Lorcan cheered--

\-- Then Aera immediately pivoted to the White Mage card and took it. "This one looks pretty," Aera said. "Like the staff Mom uses."

Lorcan paused, his face frozen in his cheer, but the action did not reach his eyes. Aisha started laughing, a belly-clutching, doubled-over full-on laugh. Aera looked up innocently at her parents, not quite understanding what was going on.

"Not quite the clincher you were hoping for, honey," Aisha managed to wheezed out, tears still in her eyes.

Lorcan immediately deflated as he stared at his daughter. "Aera, did you do that on purpose?" he whined.

"Do what?" Aera asked with a smile. Lorcan clutched his head, disappointed. Aisha knew her daughter - that seemingly innocent smile knew that she duped her father, even though she wasn't sure why. Aera truly was her daughter.

"Good girl," Aisha patted Aera's head as she cleaned up the other cards. "Let's go find you a teacher for your start into Conjury," she said. "You'll make a great White Mage."

Lorcan pouted almost comically as the two women in his life gave him a smirk. He sighed in resignation and stood. "I'll make sure you have the best teacher," he said, his confidence slowly returning.

  


* * *

  


Eighteen-year-old Aera Sylvarant started to smile to herself as she remembered the memory with her parents, long ago.

Ever since she set foot in Eorzea, her world had expanded. She still had her White Mage job crystal and still had all her skills as such, but she had since decided on... other branches of Disciplines of War and Magic. _Wherever you are now, father and mother,_ Aera thought, _I hope you're proud of me now, still._

"Aera?" Stephanivien de Haillenarte peeked from the second floor of the Skysteel Manufactory, holding a brand-new aetherotransformer. "Here, a new, clean one. I hope this helps you with your guns," he said as he descended the stairs.

Aera reached out and took the new transformer from him. "Thank you," she smiled.

"Only the best for our best Machinist," Stephanivien grinned. "Now, let us go. Joye and Hilda should be waiting for us."

Aera nodded as she followed him outside, putting her new aetherotransformer on her hip and swiftly reloading her pistol.


End file.
